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Biggles and the Plane That Disappeared/plot
Chapter 1: An Aeroplane Fails to Return The Kingsmead Flying Club reports that one of its aircraft, a Piper Cub, has disappeared fro almost three day with no trace. The pilot Taffy Welsh had been out giving a passenger, one Lancelot Litton, a joyride. The particulars of the passenger subsequently prove to be false. From the facts, Biggles surmises that the passenger must be a trained pilot intent on seizing the aircraft. He sends Ginger and Bertie to nerby clubs armed with a description of Litton. Chapter 2: Ginger Finds a Scent After three days Ginger strikes a hot scent when an instructor at the Marsdale Flying School in Oxford remembers an ex-instructor, "Snifty" Chandler with that description. Chandler had been dismissed from the R.A.F. and later the club for the same problem: habitually flying while drunk. Biggles expects that Chandler had seized the Piper for some nefarious purpose. He would need to refuel it sooner or later and would probably repaint it to hide its origin. Biggles writes a circular to all clubs asking to be notified if a Piper which has been freshly painted calls for fuel or oil. Chapter 3: The Trail of the Cub A week passes and then Marcel Brissac calls from France. A Piper had been spotted over the Plaine de la Crau near Marseilles. Radar had then tracked it flying as far as Lyons. The pilot had refused to identify himself. Next, a club at Lysett calls--a mechanic there had recently refuelled a Piper painted dark blue but which appeared to once had been cream underneath. Bertie is sent to Lysett to watch for the Piper. Some time later, the manager of the club, Duncan Grant, calls: the Piper had come in and Bertie had taken off to follow it. Biggles and Ginger wait but night falls and there is no further call from Bertie. Something has gone wrong, Biggles says. Chapter 4: Not in the Programme At Lysett, Bertie is lucky. He doesn't wait belong before the Cub with Chandler arrives to refuel before taking off. Bertie takes off and follows. The Cub lands in a meadow near a farmhouse. Bertie marks the field with a bag of chalk but then his aircraft develops engine trouble and he has no choice to follow the Cub in to land. Chandler greets him in a friendly way and suggests that he go to the farmhouse for refreshments while they make arrangements to repair his Auster. Inside Chandler introduces Bertie to Dr Paul Hammal whom he says is his uncle. Chapter 5: A Proposition After ascertaining that Bertie might be interested in making a bit of money, Chandler makes a direct pitch for Bertie to join him in his business which lies in providing air transport for people who wish to avoid customs formalities, in effect, smuggling. But the pitch is backed by a veiled threat: Bertie won't be able to leave in any case. He is taken to a room with a barred window to make up his mind. Chapter 6: Strange Developments The next morning, Biggles and Ginger go down to Lysett. They follow Bertie's course and Ginger spots the meadow with a patch of white made by Bertie's bag of chalk. They travel to the meadow and study the nearby farm buildings. Inside a barn, they hear people working. At nightfall, they hear and Auster take-off without navigation lights. As it might be headed for France, Ginger goes off to warn Marcel. But where is Bertie? Chapter 7: Night Flight Going back to Bertie. Locked in his room, he hears morse being tapped out on a waterpipe and finds out that Taffy Welsh is being kept a prisoner next door. Both of them can't escape but Bertie decides to accept Chandler's offer in order to infiltrate the gang and learn more about it. At nightfall the next day, he and Chandler take off in the Auster for the south of France. Chapter 8: Biggles Understands Biggles examines the barn and finds the Cub. A car with a diplomatic CD plate arrives and drops off a passenger. Round the back of the house, they hear a hiss: it is Taffy calling to them from his room. He explains what happened to Bertie and himself but Biggles and Ginger cannot find a way to free him. They decide to first immobilise the Cub by draining its tank, and then wait for the Auster to come back. Chapter 9: Tragic News Dawn comes and the Auster is overdue. Biggles reports to the Air Commodore from Lysett. He is told to wait for Gaskin and a Special Branch officer, Smith, to handle the political angle of the CD car. Gaskin arrives but now they get tragic news: the Auster has been found crashed in Normandy with a dead body next to it. It must be Bertie. And, surprisingly, Chandler, whom they thought was in the Auster, has somehow returned to the farm by car. Chapter 10: What Happened to Bertie The story now rewinds to Bertie's point of view. Chandler is confident that they will not meet with any opposition and they cross into Southern France and land on the Plaine de la Crau where a group of people are waiting for them. Chandler hands over a bag of industrial diamonds destined for behind the Iron Curtain andt they take on a passenger. Suddenly they are all caught in a searchlight beam. The ground party scatters. Chandler, Bertie and the passenger dash into the Auster and make a hasty take off with a machine gun shooting at them. On the way back to England, the Auster is continually challenged by radio and ordered to land but Chandler tells Bertie to ignore them. Anti-aircraft fire open up and they are forced to take evasive action. After a while, Bertie notices that the passenger appears wounded. Chandler tells him he is very important and he will be held accountable if something happens to him. He agrees with Bertie's suggestion to land somewhere and apply some first aid. Chapter 11: Chandler Shows His Hand Bertie puts the Auster down but the field turns out to be a reed bed and the aircraft is cocked on its nose and stuck in the mud. Worse, the passenger is dead. Chandler decides to leave on his own to get back to England. Bertie knows Chandler is going to shoot him and dashes away to hide among the reeds. Chandler shoots at him wildly but gives up after a while and departs for the main road. Bertie meets a farmer and his son. With their horse, the Auster, which appears undamaged, is dragged to a nearby field. Bertie tells them he intends to take off as it is the fastest way of getting in contact with the police. Once airborne, Bertie considers it best to head for Lysett where he thinks Biggles might have gone to look for him. Landing in rural France will incur inevitable delays getting a message through to Marcel or Biggles. Worse, Chandler might make it back to England to raise the alarm and this might endanger Taffy Welsh. But it won't be easy for Bertie to fly back across the Channel. A flight of French Air Force Mysteres intercept him and he is forced to dodge them by hiding in the clouds. Chapter 12: Showdown at the Farm Back at the farm, Gaskin and Biggles decide to force the issue at the house. Dr Hammal refuses to talk and produces a gun. Chandler insists he did not shoot Bertie. The dead man was a passenger and he had been killed by anti aircraft fire. Hammal shouts at Chandler to stop talking and turns his gun towards him. Chandler jumps sideways as the gun crashes and escapes through the open door heading for the Cub. Biggles yells a warning that the Cub has no fuel but Chandler ignores it and takes off. The expected happens: the engine cuts out, Chandler stalls, crashes and is killed. Chapter 13: How It All Ended Gaskin has disarmed Hammal and taken him into custody. The police find money and a bag of industrial diamonds. Biggles goes back to Lysett where he is delighted to find that Bertie is alive and has just landed there. Hammal ends up with a long prison sentence while the French police, with Biggles' help, lay a trap and arrest the gang at their end. As for the diplomatic car and the identity of the dead passenger, Biggles never learns the full facts. Category:Plot summaries